


Nightmares

by girlycards



Category: Hellsing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-19 11:37:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22276978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlycards/pseuds/girlycards
Summary: prompt: “You should sleep.” - “I’m not human, therefore, I do not require sleep.”
Kudos: 26





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even want to think about how long this has been in my drafts/WIPs

She kept running, swearing she had managed to escape, only to be surrounded by more shadow people. Their facelessness somehow made them more terrifying. Were the shadow people screaming? She couldn’t tell, She just kept slicing into the shadow people, their forms disintegrating. Integra shouted for Alucard, looking for his familiar red coat, only to see it appear when she sliced another one of the shadow people. Integra couldn’t stop herself from shoving their sword into the shadow Alucard, who immediately dissolved.

“Integra…” Alucard’s voice carried in her ears. Integra still wasn’t sure if those last words were said in her dreamscape or the solid world when she jerked awake. She reached for her glasses on the nightstand, briefly fumbling. Once she found them, she looked around the dark room. She swore she saw a shadow in the corner, before it disappeared back into the wall.

“Alucard,” she spoke out loud. Prompting the darkness to re-emerge in a nearby location, slowly revealing his form, his red coat trailing behind him. Even having it ingrained in her for years that vampires were creatures of the night, before she even knew of Alucard’s existence. It still made her uneasy, so many years later, that Alucard would just watch her sometimes.

Sometimes it felt protective, other times it just fell like Alucard was “being Alucard,” Walter described it as the latter, refusing to believe Alucard would be protective without Integra’s direct orders. Walter had spoken at length with Integra when she was younger, about the dangers of Alucard. Alucard’s tendencies towards chaos and manipulation. That awakening Alucard had been dangerous enough, and avoid using him.

Against his advice, Integra had trusted Alucard from the beginning, choosing not be afraid of the immortal vampire that towered over her. That had not changed, knowing now the effects of the seal, that Alucard was bound to servitude to the Hellsings.

“Master,” Alucard said.

“Sometimes, I wish you were human, so I could tell you ‘go to bed.’ and not lurk in bedroom late at night.”

“You could order me.”

“Somehow, I feel like there’s a loophole you’re aiming for there.”

Alucard chuckled, sitting on the end of Integra’s bed, “You’re right.”

Integra tried not to cringe or think of what Alucard could possibly imply, and failed at both. She tried to reign her thoughts in, thinking of Alucard joining her in her bed, his large form next to her. His protective- she tried to make the thoughts leave their mind. Was this Alucard’s doing, she wondered. She knew he had the ability to manipulate the minds of humans, but didn’t the seal prevent her from being affected?

“I cannot manipulate your thoughts,” Alucard said, quickly bringing Integra’s train of thought to a crashing stop.

“Stop reading my mind, vampire.”

Alucard resigned himself to silence, his black tendrils snaking across the floor, slowly coating the room in a darkness that would have seemed suffocating, if Integra bothered paying attention.

“Why did you come to my room?”

“I could hear your nightmare. Your thoughts become quite loud when you do,” he said.

Integra tried to recall what she had been dreaming of prior, the intensity of the nightmare seemed to have already faded. The fear felt distant, knowing Alucard was present. Alucard didn’t comment on the silence, getting back up. He headed towards the wall from which he emerged, aware that Integra’s eyes were beginning to track him, as he took a step into the wall.

“Can you stay?” she asked, sitting back up.

Alucard stopped.

“It’s not an order.”

Alucard wasn’t completely sure what made him decide to stay, but he decided to tell himself it was because it was an ‘implied order.’ He turned around, returning to sit at the end of Integra’s bed, sinking into it all the way. Integra propped up their pillow behind herself, laying back.

“Do you dream, Alucard?”

“Sometimes.”

“What do you dream of?”

Alucard was silent for a moment, “Do you truly want an answer to that question?”

“Yes. I asked the question.”

“I have nightmares. Nightmares of the past. Nightmares of the people I’ve drank blood from, their pain and burdens. Nightmares of Arthur and Abraham.”

Integra pressed her lips together, reaching into her drawer for a cigarette and lighter. It was not lost on her that she was not on that list. “Don’t you dream of anything else?”

“Perhaps. I do not remember, though.”

Integra inhaled, blowing a puff of smoke, “Do you sleep in that coffin, anyway? I only ever find you napping in your throne.”

“Sometimes.”

Integra nodded again, resigning herself to not continue to pry. “Walter probably doesn’t appreciate me smoking in bed again,” swinging her legs over the side of the bed, standing up. She walked towards the window. “I can’t sleep soundly nowadays, there’s too much going on.”

“Master, you know I can slaughter your enemies. Destroy anyone who stands in your way… just give me the command. I am your servant,” his voice growing slightly deeper and more intense with each word, “Command. Me.”

“Alucard,” she said, “That’s not all I have to worry about. The Round Table, meeting expectations, the queen… People needing results. People are talking about me.” 

Alucard stood up, walking towards the window to join Integra.

She continued, “Our mortality rate is still too high, according to the bureaucrats. The property damage.. It’s hard to justify to people who don’t believe in the satanic and vampiric threats.”

“They are imbeciles, master.”

“That doesn’t change the…” Integra cut herself off. Integra blew another breath of smoke out, prematurely pressing her cigarette into the ashtray to put it out. What a waste. Some things didn’t need to be discussed, she thought. Alucard wouldn’t, couldn’t, and perhaps she didn't want to Alucard to understand.

“I’m going to try to sleep. If you do find it so necessary to lurk… please do it more visibly and don’t stand in the wall.”


End file.
